Denise Turner helped start South County Youth Task Force

Published in the January 4-17, 2017 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Marty Cheek

Photo by Marty Cheek
Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner in the emergency dispatch center of the police department.

After a career spanning 31 years in law enforcement, Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner will begin her retirement years New Year’s Day having earned a tremendous amount of respect from her colleagues in local public safety agencies including the Morgan Hill Police Department.

Turner has had a regional focus on issues of crime in South County, impacting the quality of life for the more than 100,000 residents who make their homes here, said Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing.

“There are many examples of her regional focus, however, two set themselves apart,” he said. “First, she spearheaded efforts to form the South County Youth Task Force to find solutions to youth and gang violence in the region. Second, she also supported the South County Family Justice Center, which serves survivors of domestic violence and is a model program for the county. I am thankful for Denise’s service to South County and know that her work will have a positive effect on the region for years to come.”

The 58-year-old Turner was born and raised in Portland, Ore. She started work as a reserve deputy in 1981 for the King County Sheriff’s Office, which serves the Seattle metropolitan area. She came to Gilroy nine years ago and made her home here when the city recruited her for the police chief’s position.

Her father and uncle were both police officers for the Portland Police Bureau, so she grew up in a law enforcement family. Her two older sisters knew they wanted to be police officers so they got into the field before her, some of the first women who were hired to work patrol, she said.

Retiring Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner receives a plaque from Gilroy Mayor Perry Woodward Dec. 5 recognizing her contribution to public safety in the region. She played a role in creating the South County Youth Task Force.
Photo courtesy Gilroy Police Foundation

“I didn’t really know that I wanted to become a cop,” she said. “I was working in computers and technology back then, and I went on a ride-along one night in the middle of winter with my sister in Alaska on a patrol around Anchorage. I saw what she did and instantly I was hooked. I thought it was the coolest job ever. If my sister could do it, I could do it.”

Aspects of the job she admired was that police officers needed to be independent, use discretion in helping people and stay positive during stressful calls, she said.

“Every day she had a different day, it was not the same job,” Turner said of the ride-along experience. “She treated people really well. That was my image of how cops interact with citizens. I got the bug.”

Being one of the first women in a career that had traditionally been dominated by men, she said she developed her personal skills in relating to members of the public in often tense situations.

“I definitely think our size does matter. Obviously being smaller and not as physical as our male counterparts, you truly have to have the ability to do mental judo and talk to people and de-escalate them just using words and your body language. I think that also serves us well,” she said. “But we also are trained in the sense that we have to use some sort of defensive tactic or weapons — we’re very skillful and competent in that. They don’t let you out of the academy until you can demonstrate 100 percent you’re ready.”

Coming to the slower-paced Garlic Capital of the World was a major shift for her to adjust to compared to life in the bustling Seattle, she said.

“Just getting to know the culture of the department and the community culture, it was fun,” she said. “It was really fun to change my life in mid-stream and come here and learn about Gilroy and what makes us so special. Instantly, I loved it and realized what a gem this department is.”

The Gilroy Police Department’s staff has “very high morale” and its people are professional, passionate and live to the department’s core values, Turner said.

“When you hear them talk to people who are in trouble, kids or families we have to come across for some reason, you know they truly have a good heart,” she said. “They care about people and they’re not just out there like the cops and robber shows you see on TV. That was important to know that we have a great team. We have very few complaints, and we have very few (internal affairs) investigations.”

Gilroy is also a community where residents respect and support their police. The city in 2015 started a nonprofit organization called the Gilroy Police Foundation, modeled on Morgan Hill’s Community Law Enforcement Foundation, to raise funds for equipment and programs for officers.

When Turner started her new job in Gilroy in March 2008, the city faced a serious gang problem which had gone on for years.

Then-mayor Don Gage started the Gilroy Gang Task Force to focus on intervention and apprehension work. The organization expanded in January 2012 into the South County Youth Task Force to collaborate with the Morgan Hill Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and both Gilroy and Morgan Hill’s school districts to address the effects of violence and gangs on young people in the region.

“We knew we had about 900 gang members, it was huge,” Turner said on the criminal problem when she arrived in Gilroy to serve as police chief. “We had gang homicides and assaults with deadly weapons. Kids were getting jumped into gangs. They were preferring the gang lifestyle because they felt like a family. So we stepped back with the folks and we talked about how do you change that culture, how do you change the desire to become part of a gang.”

The major crack-down on gangs came with Operation Garlic Press and Royal Flush in which officers from several agencies did undercover work for 18 months to learn who the gang members were. The officers were able to close down an entire gang that had held a stronghold on Gilroy for many years. Most of the members were put in prison, some for life.

“That was huge because that disrupted the presence and stronghold that they had,” Turner said. “On the other side, because you don’t just have to take it out but you have to make sure another one doesn’t come in behind them, we really focused on the prevention and intervention side of things. We worked really close with the schools and went out and got grants from the state for gang prevention. And we hired a gang prevention coordinator and we started coming together and made sure we were working together to try and create things for kids who are at risks to do.”

Turner, who is married to the city of Santa Clara’s Police Chief Mike Sellers, will continue to make her home in Gilroy. She will spend much of her time volunteering with the Compassion Center, the Gilroy Rotary Club and the local Exchange Club.

“It’s a pretty amazing area. I love it and it’s grown on me,” she said. “It’s interesting because I came from a big city, and so just driving around Gilroy in the outskirts and unincorporated areas and looking at the land and how they farm the lands, and how the crops turn over and the fruits and vegetables that come from this area, it’s pretty cool.”